Robert Icke

On the review show tonight, spy stories and war stories.

Keira Knightley stars in Robert Icke's stage adaptation of The Lives of Others about Stasi surveillance in East Germany.

Tom McCarthy's new novel finds a double agent at work in the European Court of Justice.

And the Spanish Civil War supplies one of the settings for the Palme d'Or winning film La Bola Negra.

But I think I mean, I saw the film.

I was horrified to discover she came out 20 years ago, which made me feel very old.

But I came with expectations actually because it's Robert Icke.

Robert Icke is the best of what he's done is among the best theatre I have ever seen still.

Tom will be speaking to the winner tomorrow.

And with his guests, he'll also be reviewing Keira Knightley, Back on the West End Stage, and Robert Icke's production of The Lives of Others.

And La Bola Negra, Spain's much-lauded Oscars frontrunner, a gay love story set during the Spanish Civil War.

But we'll play out tonight with Danish composer Carl Nielsen's First Symphony, performed by the San Francisco Symphony, conducted by Herbert Blomstedt, the Swedish-American conductor who has died at the age of 99.

I might, yeah.

So, yeah, so that was, it was a strangely damby ending to what was quite an up press night, you know, and very starry press night, as I think now Robert Icke's productions are, but because the production of The Lives of Others also contained Keira Knightley and Luke Thompson.

and Stephen Delane, it meant that it had a lot of heft, star power heft on stage as well.

I really loved it.

We're reviewing two new adaptations.

Firstly, a very starry version by Robert Icke of the film The Lives of Others, starring Keira Knightley, Stephen Delane and Luke Thompson.

And secondly, a new musical version of Wladyslaw Spielmann's wartime memoir The Pianist at the Park Theatre, also previously a film by Roman Polanski.

And Nancy spoke to Anne-Marie Duff, star of Some Woman at the National Theatre, Dorfman.

I just want to mention very quickly, we had a lovely email from Alison Hanmer, who's been listening for a couple of months.

Welcome to our merry band, Alison.

She's also seen The Lives of Others, which we're about to review, and her view is... is that one, Robert Icke is an actual genius, and two, she was very impressed by the career choices of Luke Thompson because, of course, he did Bridgerton, he led season four, and instead of going straight to Hollywood, he's done White Rabbit, Red Rabbit...

A very small but kind of intense part in the film Elsinore and then straight back to the stage for three months.

No, I appreciate the clarity on it.

You know, it's great to hear that, you know, and for you, you know, do you feel because like, you know, we're seeing so many of these directors, you know, I already brought up Simon Stone, Rob Icke, you know, they're kind of coming with these, you know, productions that started in the UK and then they move over here and in the same way, you know, a lot of actors can play and there's so many British actors taking American actors, you know, for you, do you I mean, is that something where you try to go to the West End or to London and do? Yeah, I

mean, I have a couple of projects that are angling at the West End.

I mean, I think in some ways it's financial where theaters feel like they can or producers feel like they can test out a project there for a lot less money than they can here.

It's very strange how many there were, but each taking on a different incarnation really.

And that was The Doctor by Robert Icke.

In 2018, which we failed to mention, his Oedipus appears for the first time and then does come to Edinburgh this year.

It appeared he did it for the Tunnel Group for the Dutch company in Amsterdam.

The Crimean War breaks out between Russia and the Ottoman Empire and soon involves France, the UK, and Kingdom of Sardinia.

And a 20-year-old Johannes Brahms meets Robert and Clara Schumann, setting off one of music history's great situationships.

Musical works of 1853 include Stephen Foster's My Old Kentucky Home, Charles Gounod's setting of Ave Maria, Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies I through XV, Verdi's La Traviata, and Il Trovatore.

Patrick, what is Il Trovatore about?

I think that is so true.

I mean, what she says about Oedipus Rexus, what a marvelous analysis of that.

I've just recently seen Robert Icke's updated version of Oedipus Rex, which is so magnificent and I thought so Verdean because he sets Oedipus Rex in a modern context and it begins as a political television appearance in which Oedipus Rex promises to release his birth certificate and the moment he utters those words a clock on stage a digital clock set at 90 minutes begins to count down and we see the clock through the rest of the play We see it count down.

We have no idea what's coming when it gets to zero.

I am a fan of James Graham generally, though I do think the work can be slightly patchy or underpowered.

What about Lives of Others at the Adelphi? It's a Robert Icke starring Keira Knightley and Luke Thompson.

I've got tickets for that.

I've never seen the film.

No, the film's fantastic.

And Robert Icke, I think I've got to go and see that just because he does

interesting stuff all the time.

I just saw Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf last night.